12/31/10

The past two years, I made resolutions to read at least fifty books and did so. This year, I did not make a resolution and failed to crack thirty. So this list is probably even less interesting than usual.

I taught several classes this year, which allowed me to reread a lot of fantastic essays and short fiction from old masters (Kafka, Hoffamann, Borges, O'Connor, Marquez, Cortazar, and countless others), but impeded my complete book reading. I also started a few giant tomes, specifically Bertrand Russell's The History of Western Philosophy and Roberto Bolano's 2666, both of which I will hopefully finish in some future year.

Books I finished in chronological order (*s are rereads):

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao – Junot Diaz

Chronicles – Bob Dylan

Little Things – Jeffery Brown

Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned – Wells Tower

NOON 2001

Reality Hunger – David Shields

NOIR – Robert Coover

NOON 2010

Twenty Grand – Rebecca Curtis

Wise Blood – Flannery O’Connor

Magic For Beginners – Kelly Link

Books: A Memoir – Larry McMurtry

Nightwork – Christine Schutt

The Spot – David Means

Apex Hides the Hurt – Colson Whitehead

All the Living – C. E. Morgan

Jesus’ Son – Denis Johnson*

Billy Hazelnuts 2 – Tony Millionaire

Seven Nights – Jorge Luis Borges

The Green Child – Herbert Read

Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico – Javier Marias

The Literary Conference – Cesar Aira

Patriotism – Yukio Mishima

Ghosts – Cesar Aira

Tales of Desire – Tennessee Williams

Mystery and Manners – Flannery O’Connor

Do Not Disturb – Muriel Spark

Here Comes Another Lesson – Stephen O’Connor

This feels like too few books to bother with further breakdown, as I did in previous years.

11/13/10

I have not updated this blog since reading in Kansas City, MO and Lawrence, KS. Here is a quick round-up of some things.

In writing news:

I have two stories in the sure to be fantastic Unsaid #5, which I believe started being shipped yesterday. You can view the massive and massively awesome list of contributors here. I'm honored to be alongside so many authors I admire (Anne Carson, Brian Evenson, etc.) and authors I am good friends with--and also admire!--such as Rozalia Jovanovic, Catherine Foulkrod and Sasha Fletcher. Look out for it in bookstores, or order it online.

I also have a story forthcoming in another great literary magazine, Indiana Review. It is a story about a short dictator and his bodyguards. It is pure fiction, although when I gave a reading of it once several different people came up and told me that they were positive they knew which real life dictator it was based on. More on that when it gets published.

I also found out that an essay I wrote for The Rumpus was assigned in a college course when I received a few emails from students asking me for background information for their essays. It was pretty flattering to hear!

John Dermot Woods and I have been working on a badass comic strip. More about that later.

Lastly, the readings in Kansas City and Lawrence were both awesome and a million thanks to Clancy Martin and Chloe Cooper Jones for organizing them. Indeed, the whole midwest experience was fantastic, especially the food. Some items I consumed: duck fat french fries, kobe beef burger, biscuits and turkey sausage gravy, biscuits and beef sausage gravy and eggs, biscuits and fried rabbit, chicken-fried pork steak, sliced flank steak, Kansas City pulled pork, Kansas City short ribs, etc.

post-lecture, pre-reading

In editing news:

In addition to our readings, James Yeh and I gave a talk on editing and creating literary magazines to students in the MFA program and Kansas University. I've just learned that their magazine will be called Beecher's Magazine and my good friend Chloe Cooper Jones is going to be the first editor in chief. Look out for it!

Speaking of Chloe Cooper Jones, she is joining the staff of The Faster Times with an exciting dialogues section. The first piece will be a conversation between herself, Deb Olin Unferth and George Saunders. It should go up on Monday.

Lastly, Gigantic#3 is coming together amazingly and we have several killer contributing writers and artists to announce soon.

In non-writing and non-editing news:

I had a birthday and am one step closer to death.

In better news, I recently attended the baptism of my cute and awesome godson, Leo Marshall Pesch. If we are Facebook friends, I am sure you've seen pictures.

9/21/10

James Yeh and I are hosting our monthly dance night at Greenpoint's Manhattan Inn this Friday. I play a lot of 60s soul and Southern hip-hop, James plays a lot of 80s pop and Northern jangle rock. Come on by and boogie.

9/3/10

Above is the rad cover for the new issue of Canteen magazine. The issue's feature is a series of essays that tangentially deal with the decline (?) of The Great American Novel. I have an essay in there on disappearing swimming pool deep-ends and there are essays by many other rad writers such as Justin Taylor and Tao Lin (read an excerpt of his essay online). Check it out!

8/16/10

Driving out west in a rusted sedan, our thoughts slowed with each passing state. My Indian wife wore her wrist-watch with the broken strap. She was dialing up the radio.

Mildly interesting note: that piece actually began as a cut-up of a Hardy Boys novel I found on the street. I have some other work coming out soon that I'm excited about, especially two stories in the new Unsaid that will be in stores very soon. Also expect new Gigantic online content, events and print issues in the coming days, weeks and months.

7/12/10

Friends, Romans, blog readers, lend me your ears. Gigantic and NOON are joining forces Voltron-like for a Bastille Day Soiree this Wednesday the 14th! If you are in the New York City area you should come out to mingle in a rad downtown bar and hear great readings from three amazing authors: Diane Williams, Rebecca Curtis and Joshua Cohen.

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In other Gigantic news, we are seeking submissions for our third print issue: Gigantic Indoors.

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And have you been checking out the amazing comic by Leni Zumas and Luca Dipierro that we have been serializing? The third installment went up last month with more to follow.

4/15/10

The Rumpus has posted a short-short of mine alongside seven other rad stories by Mark Edmund Doten, Shya Scanlon, John Madera, Maureen Miller, A. Wolfe, Franklin Winslow and Snowden Wright. These are the four winners and four finalists of the Sam Lipsyte Jump-Off Contest where we wrote 300 word stories based on a sentence from Lipsyte's fantastic new novel, The Ask. You can read my story here, after the introduction.

“It’s when they stop trying to destroy you,” my mother said, “that you should really start to worry.”

My mother had one arm hooked around my neck, smothering me against the same breasts that once milked my mouth. The other swung at me with a mechanical can opener.

4/6/10

Tonight, April 6th, is A Night Together at the Highline Ballroom. The event, hosted by The Rumpus, Tin House and Flavorpill features a bunch of awesome writers, comedians and musicians like Sam Lispyte, Colson Whitehead, Michael Showalter and Jeffery Lewis.

The Rumpus also held a contest for readers to write 300-word stories based on Sam Lipsyte sentences. Four submitters, including me, were selected to read, which should be pretty fun! So if you aren't doing anything tonight, you should stop by. Or if you are doing something, you should scrap those plans and come to this instead.

4/2/10

Gigantichas a bunch of new content up for April. We have a whole collection of new American biographies and accompanying artwork from John Dermot Woods, an exciting illustrated book from Leni Zumas and Luca Dipierro that we are serializing online, and finally we have reprinted the long Sam Lipsyte interview that I conducted for print issue 2. I know there have been a lot of Lipsyte interviews and reviews accompanying his great new novel, The Ask, but like my momma always said, there is always room for more Lipsyte.

Hey, speaking of issue 2, you should buy a copy! A beautiful little magazine for only 7 dollars.

3/15/10

NOON's annual reading and party at The Center for Fiction (formerly The Mercantile Library) is happening on April 22nd this year. As I noted two posts ago, I have a piece in the new NOON and I'll be reading it at the NOON party alongside some great writers. So, you should come! Info below:

NOON 2010 Reading & Party

Thursday, April 22nd at 7pm

Featuring Kim Chinquee, Sara Jaffe,

Tao Lin, Lincoln Michel, Dylan Nice,

Diane Williams, & Anya Yurchyshyn

The Center for Fiction

17 E. 47th Street

R.S.V.P 212.755.6710

p.s. There will also be a deal to get all 11 issues of NOON for 100 dollars!

3/9/10

The new NOON is here! Always an amazing and essential read, the 2010 issue is even more exciting for me this year because I have a short piece in it. I'm very honored and excited to be alongside the likes of Deb Olin Unferth, Clancy Martin, Christine Schutt, Gary Lutz and my good friend Anya Yurchyshyn. Should be in bookstores soon if not there already.

2/22/10

Believe it or not, the second issue of Gigantic magazine is completed. It is a long time coming, but the result was worth it. The magazine looks completely fantastic (thanks to Erin West!) and contains work or interviews with the likes of Sam Lipsyte, Robert Coover, Clancy Martin, Lydia Millet, Stephen O'Connor, Deb Olin Unferth, Adrian Tomine and many other awesome artists and writers.

We are also having a launch party next Saturday at PPOW gallery in Chelsea. Clink on the link for all the details, but Stephen O'Connor, Deb Olin Unferth, Sasha Fletcher and Brian Beatty's surrogate will be reading and there will be booze so you know you want to come.

2/10/10

Tomorrow night Vol 1 Brooklyn and Gigantic are presenting Greatest Three-Minute Rock ‘n’ Roll Story Ever, a rocking reading with 20 readers, some bands and good times. The readings will only be three minutes each, so not as intimidating as it sounds. I'll be reading a short piece as will James Yeh, Justin Taylor and many other rad writers. 7pm at Bar Matchless. More info here.

2/9/10

I was cleaning up my old files and came across a very old poem I'd written in 2005 after a Robert Bly poem called The Great Society (1967). I haven't touched the poem or read Bly's in five years. I still like some of the lines, but as you can tell it is very much a poem about the Bush era and doesn't seem salvageable. I figured I'd post it here for fun. (Note: the only edits I've made are losing some semi-colons, which I was using to mirror Bly, but probably incorrectly.)

The legs of senators are trapped in gofer holes.Dogs sniff at dark clouds brewing to the east.The President daydreams of invading everythingExcept his own skull.The pregnant cement of city streets has split open with weeds.

Talking heads cough up balls of static on TV: The suburbs brood.The traveling salesmen returns home covered in blood, again.Wet children in their lawns stare troubled at each otherBefore vanishing to their dinners whileRetired astronauts plant American flags into their own chests.

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In other poetry news...

A few of you have met my friend Taras Castle. He is an, uh, interesting man. He has been working on a collection of poems called The Red Cosmonaut Cycle for a while and one of those poems just appeared in Greatest Uncommon Denominator. If you click on the link you can see a preview and purchase the poem for a mere 50 cents (or for a bit more the entire issue). Here is the first paragraph:

1/28/10

The Rumpus and htmlgiant party last week was a rocking good time. Thanks to everyone who came out (and it was a packed house). I had fun DJing and listening to the rad musicians and readers, especially Deb Olin Unferth and her forthcoming Noon story and Jeffrey Lewis and his Mosquito Murderer rap. There is a write-up with some short interviews and pictures at Scallywag and Vagabond.

1/18/10

This Thursday I will be DJing The Rumpus One Year Anniversary Party (co-sponsored by htmlgiant). The Rumpus is a great website that I've written for a few times. The party features lots of great readers and musicians (Deb Olin Unferth, Tao Lin, Justin Taylor, Jeffrey Lewis, etc.) and is hosted by my good friend and Gigantic co-editor Rozalia Jovanovic.

Check out this nifty animated invite:

Come on out, you know you want to.

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A week and a half ago I wrote a long (and mostly negative) review of James Cameron's Avatar for The Millions. Yesterday Avatar won a Golden Globe for best picture, but we live in a world where Juno of all awfully-written films won a script Oscar and Crash was named best picture...so what can you do?

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The second (and super-awesome) issue of Gigantic should come out in the next few weeks. I know we've been saying that for a while, but this time we are super-serious.

1/1/10

Continuing my annual tradition that is of no interest to anyone but myself, here is the chronological list of every book I finished in 2009. Finished means I finished reading the entire thing front to back, but not necessarily that I started reading it in 2009 (likewise books I started this year yet didn't finish are absent).

My goal was at least 50 books. I completed the 50th late in the afternoon on December 31st.

* indicates books I'd read before previously...although this year that was only one book.

20.5 novels/novellas

15 story collections/lit mags

8 comics/graphic novels

5 books of non-fiction (one of which was also a graphic novel)

2.5 poetry collections

This year I was working full time and also finishing up my fiction thesis for Columbia University, which I think cut down on my reading time substantially (14 fewer than 2008). I'm a little ashamed of the gender imbalance in the above list, something to fix in 2k10. The amount of poetry I read fell dramatically and I'm not sure what explains that. Non-fiction is always low since I read a lot of magazines for that (primarily The Believer, New Yorker, Harper's and The Oxford American).

I read two books each by Steve Erickson, Barry Hannah, Grant Morrison and Donald Barthelme. Three books each by Brian Evenson (all 2009 releases no less) and Richard Brautigan.

The fight will take place in February in a cage suspended above the Gowanus. I'm told I'm allowed to bring either one folding chair or one copy of Infinite Jest into the ring. Is anyone available to help me train?